Dawn's Descent
by Irhaboggles
Summary: Just a two-shot/analysis of Dawn as she goes from Pink to Dark.
1. Queen of the Castle

The house around her began to morph and shift again, rumbling and creaking like a monster about to awaken from a deep slumber. The pinkness faded from the walls, replaced by an inky black. Bright pink towers turned into eerie, black spires. Gold turned to iron and the entire house continued to contort, physically changing, switching over from an overly large dollhouse into a Victorian-era castle that would've made Dracula happy. The girl responsible for the change, the owner of the house, sat alone in her bedroom with a cross expression. It was Dawn Crumhorn, the newly-turned teenager. She was suffering through another bout of angsty-teen frustration, the mood swings driving her up the shifting walls.

Dawn's _essence_ was a very powerful thing, and it had only grown stronger after one of her favorite possessions fell into a vat of personality-amplifying mind gel. After being exposed to that gel long enough (by proxy of the object that had fallen in in the first place, a tiara) Dawn had begun to absorb some of that power too, and it seemed to reside right within the very core of her soul. Whether she knew it or not, whether she meant to or not, her very being had fused with this power, and her subconscious dreams and desires could come to life whenever she so decided to bring them up.

Back in the day, she had used this power to lavish all sorts of fun things upon herself. Shiny, new things, like crowns and dresses and jewelry. Her simple mansion turned into a castle, a dollhouse brought to life. The house had grown in size and the simple plaster walls turned into sparkly pink bricks. The squareness of the house morphed into the intricate shape of a castle, with tall towers spiraling above the bulky body of the main fortress of the castle. The windows grew larger and more beautiful, turning from simple square panes into stained-glass windows of all shapes and sizes. A gate of solid gold now blocked off the property and the entire house was elevated as Dawn's personality power was strong enough to shape the very Earth itself, causing it to rise up beneath her new castle in the shape of a hill. Now she literally was above her neighbors, perched on high as the queen of the castle, able to stare down at from her place on top of the hill, her bedroom existing in a tower protruding out from the rest of the house to give her a better view of the world below.

But that wasn't the only thing Dawn used her powers to change. Her clothing transformed into outfits befitting of a real princess. Her toys came to life, filling the large halls of her castle to act as her royal court. And for a while, she had reveled in her godlike powers, capable of bringing her very dreams to life with just a simple thought. Her personality bled out of her body and filled up the world around her. Like ink staining across a page, Dawn's dreams and personality bled into the real world, blurring the lines between fantasy and reality until they were one weird mishmash. She became the queen of the castle, the creator and ruler of her own little world!

But then the world began to turn dark. Dawn's irrational irritation grew stronger and stronger every day. Too much emotion bottled up inside of her and it began to bleed out again just like always. Even though she had long-since ditched the tiara possessing the personality gel, the powers were already encoded in her very genes. As such, she no longer needed the crown to bring her fantasy into reality. But this time, she hadn't really been trying. Unlike the olden days, when she reveled in creating new and fun things to gorge herself upon, her new creations were not intentional. She still controlled what they were, but not the fact that they had come into existence at all. That much was out of her hands, her own mind and personality betraying her as they overflowed with negative emotion. She was no longer creating for the sake of creating. Her foul tempers and moods were overloading her system and the way she expressed was not only through tantrums and mood swings, but through creation.

Her dollhouse began to blacken and twist, sharp spires replacing bright pink flags. The glitter turned into cold stone and creeping vines. Big, bright, beautiful windows became faded and old, suddenly covered by long, thick, black drapes that kept any sunlight from entering the house. A pink throne of cushions became a pitch black throne, highlighted with dark purple streaks. A beautiful bed with a pink canopy became a simple and almost coffin-like resting place, a black mourner's veil replacing the pink canopy. All the bright and shiny jewelry became dull and hard, black leather and silver spikes replacing comically large jewels and flashy, glittery gold. Pop music became harder, slower and darker. No more bright, bubbly lyrics heavy with autotune. Now they were only songs of rage, backed up by wailing electric guitars.

The very house conformed to every little last one of Dawn's whims, intentional or not. The very house conformed to Dawn's emotional state, whether she wanted it to or not. The golden gates were now iron and spiked. The tiles looked scaly instead of glittery. The gardens were no longer luxurious, but barren and empty and gray, like they were awaiting a shipment of tombstones any day now. And Dawn, herself, had undergone a drastic change as well. Her curly hair became long and straight and it darkened into black until the only color left in it was one white stripe towards the front. Her skin became paler, tinting with dark purple instead of bright pink. Her eyes, which used to be either brown or pink based on whether or not she was using her "Princess Powers" had turned purple. Her fluffy pink ballgown was a Victorian era dress, long and black and flowing, highlighted with silver accents and completed with a tight corset. The gothic look was complete.

But as Dawn's personality continued to mesh with reality, warping everything around her, her mood continued a downward spiral.

"Urgh! I hate grownups!" the young poodle glowered at the door as her father took leave of her room. He had come to demand why everything was so bleak and black and her only response had been to shout at him until he left her alone again. She crossed her arms and growled lowly. Her growls used to be high-pitched, sounding like that of a chihuahua, but with this new edge in her life, her growl was finally starting to sound ferocious, like her Doberman father's. It filled her with a dark satisfaction.

"You could at least wear your tiara!" he had complained, ears twitching a little as he chastised her new aesthetic.

"Ugh! That girly thing?" Dawn had sounded repulsed, and that had been the end of that.

"Stupid, stupid, STUPID!" Dawn continued to growl as she crossed her arms and dug her paws deeper and deeper into her own arms. The house began to rumble and moan and creak again. By the end of this new little fit, something new would've popped up somewhere. She felt the foundation rumbling beneath her, a growling beast waiting to devour someone. The curtains seemed to tighten and all the silver looked brighter while all the spikes looked sharper.

After a few minutes, then, the restless rumbling of the house ceased and it fell as still and silent as a graveyard once more. Dawn continued to sit on her throne and glare down at the rest of the petty little world beneath her feet. She was the queen of the castle here, the ruler of her own little world, her darkened kingdom. She loathed and loved it at the same time and she continued to scowl as the walls of the house turned blacker and blacker and blacker.

**AN: Random fic about Dawn's descent into an angsty teenager, inspired off Zarius' theory that the house is somehow tied to Dawn directly, hence why it seems to reflect her mood so well (because there's no way magic was NOT involved in Dark Dawn when DM and Penfold waltz into her house only to find it COMPLETELY renovated. No house can go through such a dramatic shift that fast, unless the house changes and respond to its owner's mental and emotional state. Which is more fun to think about anyway).**


	2. The Queen

"Oh, come on, Dawn! What happened to me old princess?" Mr. Snuggles pleaded in frustration as he scowled down at the now-black-clad figure glaring right back up at him with similar annoyance and distaste.

"Ugh! I already _told_ you! I'm not a princess anymore, I'm an _adult_!" came the huffy reply.

"You're a teenager!" Mr. Snuggles snorted back.

"Well, at the very least, I am not a little kid anymore!" Dawn growled, his remark cutting her deep. Although she was not yet an adult, she was beyond ready to be treated like one. Mr. Snuggles' remark had reminded her of the fact that she was still technically a kid and it made her bristle.

Dawn was tired of being a little kid, of being underestimated and ignored. She was tired of playing the role of the fool, the cute little princess. She didn't like all those little games, especially because she was usually no more than a pawn in all of them. She wanted to be a real player for once! Or even a gamemaster! But she was sick of being the pawn. She wanted to grow up and be treated with more respect.

Fights like these were becoming increasingly common within the Crumhorn home as Dawn continued to age, repeatedly attempting to assert her dominance over anyone who crossed her path. Already, she and her father had rubbed shoulders about Dawn's insistence that she grow up and stop wearing her old girly princess clothing, but since her father was usually never around anyway, Dawn had won that fight pretty easily. He had begged her to at least keep wearing her old princess tiara, but since he was never around to actually if she would follow through on that, she was easily able to ditch the tiara and he never even realized.

But Mr. Snuggles, a far more constant companion, was much more persistent. He and Dawn had been going back and forth for weeks now. Even though Dawn insisted that she deserved to be treated like a grownup and even though she insisted that she be called "Dark Dawn" now (or at least something other than "Princess Dawn" or "The Princess" or any other similarly associated names) Mr. Snuggles continued to call her the same names he used to call her.

"C'mon Dawn! You were me princess!" he continued to sigh angrily as he gestured to her. Although she had since gone full goth, covered in pale makeup that was highlighted with a bit of black stuff (namely, black lipstick, eyeliner and eyeshadow), Mr. Snuggles continued to insist that Dawn looked far better when she wore the glittery pink stuff of the olden days. In his opinion, the black dress was too try-hard and the corset made her look like someone's grandmother. The pink had looked far better and cuter and younger.

"There's a reason I always love being Bumpsydaisy every time we perform "Melted" and that's because you're my Zora!" he continued, trying to appeal to the girl she used to be. Then he began to sing. "I thaw you and my heart melted, I thaw-" But Dawn was just as insistent as he was.

"Eeew! No! Shut up! Stop singing! That stuff was sooo tacky and ugly and gross and embarrassing!" she flicked her new hairdo in disgust and embarrassment. As she did so, a jet of dark energy formed underneath her locks and once she completed the hair flick, that black energy blasted out from her head and accidentally blasted a large hole in her bedroom wall.

"Woah!" Mr. Snuggles shielded his face as the jet of black energy blew up the wall.

"Woah!" Dawn whispered, running her paw through her hair in amazement. Well... That was new!

In time, then, Mr. Snuggles finally left Dawn, one particularly heated argument offending him so much that he stole her tiara and left her remodeled Victorian-era Dracula castle without another look back. Dawn watched him go with a scowl as he, indignant, put on her tiara and claimed it for his own. She hoped he realized how stupid he looked with that ugly little crown! Real royalty did need to try that hard! Real royalty commanded power and respect not from shiny little tiaras and delicate, dainty princess things, but through raw charisma and commandeering. And that was just what Dawn intended upon doing!

Dawn was going garner true respect from the world one day. Not because she was pretty or dainty, but because she was real and raw and tough and gritty. She wasn't going to try to win over this pitiful planet through dresses and giggles anymore. She was going to win it over through raw brutality, brute strength, and sheer force and strength of nerve and will alone. She was getting stronger, smarter and harder with every passing day and one day, it would serve her very well.

"Hmph! I'll show him! I'll show them all!" she vowed as she retreated from the window and nestled back down on her favorite chair. It had since remodeled itself into something of a throne, made of gold and covered in dark purple cushions. It was a bit smaller than it used to be for her (or was she just getting bigger?) but that was partly because only she needed it now. With Snuggles gone, she did not need a larger chair. It was just her and her alone, ruler of her own little castle. She reclined languidly in her little "throne" as she surveyed her darkened kingdom. A dark smile spread slowly across her face as she began planning her revenge and her hostile takeover.

It was going to be a bit harder, and maybe even a bit lonelier, without a friend and companion at her side, but if he was going to do nothing but drag her down, then she was more than happy to cut him loose and let him sink while she flew up to the top, to the very top the world, right where she belonged. Mr. Snuggles was nothing but dead weight to her, and she was more than happy to discard it and work alone from now on. Maybe if he would ever be willing to apologize for being so rude and demeaning and maybe if he would start to see where she was coming from and actually respect her desires to grow up, she would forgive him. But until then? He was no friend or ally, but another enemy for her to crush! She had a list of names and his was in red, underlined.

"Maybe in the days of being a princess, I needed a prince at my side," she muttered as she picked up an old photo of her and him together, cuddling and smiling in matching outfits. They were laughing in that photo.

"But not anymore!" she tossed the picture easily over her shoulder where it landed with a harsh clang into a nearby rubbish bin. "For I am not a princess anymore, I am a queen! And I do not need a companion, or a king, in order to rule the world!" it was time for her reign of gothic terror to begin! Like a true queen, she would rule the world all by herself, because maybe a princess needed a prince, but a queen did not need a king, and that was exactly the path Dawn planned on taking! She wouldn't trust anyone and they wouldn't trust her!

Dawn reclined even further back into her little throne, crossing one leg over the other as she looked smugly out the window, already planning her revenge. The world may move on into another day and more drama, but not for Dawn. All she thought about was revenge, control, dominance and power. Maybe she was lonely and sad now, maybe she was still underestimated and underappreciated now, but there would come a day when everyone who had ever mistreated or misunderstood her would all get theirs! She would become the actress staring in their worst nightmares! This was going to be so much fun! The Princess was no more. Now, only the Queen remained, and she was on the warpath!

**AN: Another "Dawn's Descent" fic just for fun. Inspired off Taylor Swift's "Look What You Made Me Do", and this old joke:**

"**What is a queen without her king?"**

"**Well, historically, more powerful!" (insert list of powerful kingless queens here). **

**And while I'm not saying princesses need princes anymore than queens need kings, realize that you're more likely to find a powerful and relatively-content single queen than single princess. Only after you marry a prince and become a queen can you dispose of him safely... (*Evil chuckle*)**

**Also, just saying, when Dawn originally casts Penfold as Bumpsydaisy, Snuggles seems saddened by this choice. You know why? Because HE'S DAWN'S RIGHT HAND, NOT ANYONE ELSE (ok I'm done, LOL).**


End file.
